3 Reasons Why the Border Crisis Is Much Worse Than ‘Obama’s Katrina Moment’

As unaccompanied children pour across the southern U.S. border, bringing a melange of needs and potential threats with them, folks once again ask if this could be ”Obama’s Katrina moment.” The phrase conjures George W. Bush’s handling of rescue and relief after the 2005 hurricane that pummeled New Orleans and the Gulf coast.

Regardless of the desire, among some, to shrug a Bush-era slur onto Obama’s shoulders, the current crisis at our border — and Obama’s refusal to visit the border during a fundraising junket in Texas — is actually much worse that “Obama’s Katrina moment,” and here’s why…

#1. Immigration is, constitutionally, a federal responsibility. Disaster relief is not. President Calvin Coolidge actually refused to travel to the disaster region after the Great Flood of 1927 — a move he viewed as political grandstanding, accomplishing nothing. Coolidge resisted efforts to make flood control a federal issue, believing private property owners were responsible. But immigration, unquestionably, belongs in the federal arena.

Article II, Section 3 says of the president, “he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed…”

As if the constitutional locus of control were not specific enough, the Obama administration and the federal courts have repeatedly slapped the wrists of state and local officials who tried to take the matter into their own hands.

A well-known publication (possibly Popular Mechanics) did an analysis of the Bush administration's response to Katrina in comparison with other federal responses to disaster and found that the Katrina response was not at all slack in historical perspective. And yes, it was the (Democrat) local authorities who failed.

I recall reading that Kathleen Blanco turned down an offer of help from the administration before the storm hit, and it appeared that she didn’t want Bush to be credited with anything good.

If you don't have borders and you don't have laws and you don't have a Constitution and you don't have truth and you don't have protection from government abuse....how silly do you have to be to keep insisting you have a country?

Or freedom?

Or rights?

Or "states".

Or "two parties".

Or "news".

Or allies.

At what point will we get up off the sofa? Are we truly waiting for the Republican Party to save us? The courts filled with conspirators?

The media, filled with daily active conspirators?

We have no country. We have no liberty. We have no freedom. And, apparently...we have no people other than in Murrieta willing to stand up and be counted.

The Federal response to Katrina was outstanding. The press, as we all know, has been telling us otherwise, but, well, that's the press for you. Stationing the two assault support ships in the Gulf, the only place where those two professional screwups, Blanco and Nagin, couldn't get in the way was an act of brilliance. The Army Corps of Engineers didn't do so well, and of course they're Federal, but they're not something you can reasonably blame on Bush.

Immigration is not an enumerated federal power or responsibility. Perhaps it should be but that is a separate topic. The fact is that the word "immigration" does not appear in the U.S. Constitution, though a form of the word - "migration" - does in connection with Congress having the power to prohibit the slave trade after 1808 inclusive. "Naturalization", mentioned by Mr. Ott, refers to citizenship, not immigration. James Madison made exactly this point in Federalist 42: "Attempts have been made to pervert this clause into an objection against the Constitution, by representing it on one side as a criminal toleration of an illicit practice, and on another as calculated to prevent voluntary and beneficial emigrations from Europe to America. I mention these misconstructions, not with a view to give them an answer, for they deserve none, but as specimens of the manner and spirit in which some have thought fit to conduct their opposition to the proposed government." Don't forget that the Founders of the US and Framers of the Constitution (many were the same men) viewed immigrants from Europe - mostly the Mother Country - as absolutely essential. In fact, George III's refusal to pass laws to "...encourage [foreigners] migrations hither..." was one of the items in the long bill of particulars in the Declaration of Independence that argued for separation.

How did Congress gain the power? It's a long and sordid story of evolution by court decisions - some pragmatic, others frankly racist. If Congress doesn't have the power who does? The states, of course.

As I said out the outset, maybe this is bad public policy. The courts back in the 1840's that first began to encroach on reserved state powers should have thrown up their hands and cited the text of the Constitution, the doctrine of enumerated power, the contemporary debates over the Constitution, and said, "Sorry, New York [or whatever] CAN tax immigrants arriving in the US. Our hands are tied - you'll have to amend the Constitution."

It bothers me that so many putative conservatives are so willing to jettison federalism and constitutionalism when it suits them. If you accept convenient implied powers over the doctrine of enumerated powers in one area, how can you make any sort of enumerated powers line drawing in constitutional provisions you favor?

Another bug success for Barry. He has diverted conversations away from the VA, IRS, Fast and Furious and a host of other scandals.

In the meantime he has been successful in moving his socialistic agenda further by the destruction of the health care segment of the economy, moving ahead with EPA regulations and continued anti-American business practicies.

We need a lot more done that impeachment before we can attempt to fix this mess if we can.

What's next? MSNBC will decide that coyotes are the new Robin Hoods. The CDC will announce that scabies, lice and TB are actually not that bad. John Kerry will announce that it's time to reconsider the Gadsden Purchase.

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